Watermelon Fruit Leathers

Growing up I loved Fruit Leathers! I liked Fruit Roll-Ups, they were a sugary sweet treat every child enjoys, but my favorite were the berry fruit leathers at the checkout of our local health food store. Anytime I saw them I was sure to ask my mom for one, they were a special treat – my favorites were the raspberry and mixed berry flavors!

This last week our fridge somehow became overloaded with fruit – truth be told my husband went fruit crazy. Outside of the 10 peaches, a large carton of strawberries, half a cantaloupe, and bananas, I cut up a huge watermelon that took up over 6 large containers! That is way too much fruit for just two people! So I decided to make Watermelon Fruit Leathers.

The thing about making fruit leathers is that you have to be patient, they take a long time to bake at a very low temperature. This is even more true when you are making fruit leathers out of a watery fruit like watermelon – Note the word water in the name! – and unfortunately I have always struggled with patience…

Truth be told, I enjoyed making and eating these Watermelon Fruit Leather’s, but they only made about 10 fruit roll ups from the 10 cups of watermelon – although there is a secondary recipe to use up the leftover watermelon liquid. I enjoy watermelon, but honestly my favorite fruits are cherries strawberries, mangos and grapes, however if you love watermelon this fruit leather is perfect for you!

The best part is that these homemade Watermelon Fruit Leathers are so easy to make, great for lunches or a snack, and you’ll only need 2 ingredients!

Ingredients:

10 Cups Diced Watermelon

Sugar – optional – If you want to go all natural or if your watermelon is really sweet you might not need any sugar. Our watermelon wasn’t very sweet so I added ¾ cup sugar.

First, preheat the oven to the lowest temperature possible on your oven, for me that was 170° F, and line a baking sheet with good quality plastic wrap.

It’s best to use a plastic wrap that is microwavable and can tolerate low levels of heat so that it doesn’t melt in the oven and mess up your yummy Watermelon Fruit Leather. Make sure the plastic wrap has no ripples when placed on the baking sheet so that the Watermelon Fruit Leather won’t have any weird lines or ripples once its baked.

Then blend up all of the watermelon in your food processor and place it in a mesh colander lined with paper towels to drain out the excess liquid.

I had to do this in sections – 2 cups at a time – because I have a cute little mini food processor. While one batch was blending (I used the chop button seen above), another batch was in the colander, I would then put the watermelon puree in a bowel once most of the liquid was removed, and then repeat the process.

PS there is a secondary recipe coming on Thursday to show you what I did with the watermelon liquid! So don’t waste, save & make a yummy Watermelon Syrup!

Once all of the watermelon has been blended and most all of the liquid has been removed blend the puree one last time with the sugar so that the watermelon and sugar blend evenly. If need be place the puree back in the colander one last time to remove any excess liquid.

Evenly spread the watermelon puree onto the center of the baking sheet using a spatula – avoiding the edges of the pan for easy removal. I also gently shook the pan forwards and backwards on the counter to help even it out. I like the thickness of fruit leathers so mine were about 1/4th inch thick, but if you prefer the thinness of fruit rollups to the thicker fruit leathers just spread it thinner, about 1/8th inch thick. If you do prefer the thinner fruit leather you might need a second pan.

Bake the Watermelon Fruit Leathers for 6-8 hours, rotating the pan every hour. If you are baking more than one pan at a time make sure to rotate from top to bottom ever hour as well.

Now before I go any further I am going to be completely honest with you. I did run into two problems.

The first is that I did not strain the watermelon enough, so after the first hour, when I went to rotate the pan there was a ton of liquid around the edges. So I grabbed a couple of paper towels to wipe up the excess liquid. Unfortunately, that meant that the fruit leathers would take even longer to bake because of all of the extra liquid. So to avoid this I would recommend to keep straining the watermelon puree for as long as your patience can last, removing as much liquid as possible.

The second problem arose because I didn’t start baking the Watermelon Fruit Leather until the late afternoon so I wasn’t able to let it bake the proper amount of time. So I baked it until I went to bed, left it in the oven – turned off – and continued the backing process in the morning. I had read that other people left their fruit leather’s in their turned off oven if they had to run an errand or something so I thought it might be ok overnight.

The Watermelon Fruit Leather is done baking when it is no longer shiny and has a matte appearance, it will also no longer be really sticky – although all fruit rollups and fruit leathers have a little bit of stickiness. If your finger doesn’t leave an impression when touching it, and if the fruit leather can be carefully separated from the plastic wrap without easily ripping, than it is done baking. Let cool completely before removing the Watermelon Fruit Leather from the baking sheet.

Once cool, carefully pull the plastic wrap/fruit leather off the baking sheet and flip it onto a piece of parchment paper – fruit leather down. Slowly and carefully, remove the plastic wrap from the Watermelon Fruit Leather, cut off any excess fruit leather with a pizza cutter, and the excess parchment paper along the length side with clean kitchen scissors.

Here comes the tricky sticky part! Carefully cut the fruit leathers/parchment paper into long strips, about an inch wide, and then roll them up and store in an airtight container. I left mine on the counter but I know some people prefer them cool and refrigerated.

To be honest I am not sure how long these will last, because there weren’t that many to begin with, but my guess would be 3 to 5 days since there are no preservatives, maybe up to a week if kept refrigerated.

If you are reading this I am guessing you are a big watermelon lover and if that is true stayed tuned because this Thursday I will show you what I did with the extra watermelon liquid!

First, preheat the oven to the lowest temperature possible on your oven and line a baking sheet with good quality plastic wrap.

Then blend up all of the watermelon in your food processor and place it in a mesh colander lined with paper towels to drain out the excess liquid.

Once all of the watermelon has been blended, and the liquid removed, blend the puree one last time with the sugar so that the watermelon and sugar blend evenly. If need be place the puree back in the colander one last time to remove any excess liquid.

Evenly spread the watermelon puree onto the center of the baking sheet using a spatula until it is 1/4 inch thick – avoiding the edges of the pan for easy removal.

Bake the Watermelon Fruit Leathers for 6-8 hours, rotating the pan every hour.

The Watermelon Fruit Leather is done baking when it is no longer shiny and has a matte appearance, it will also no longer be really sticky. If your finger doesn't leave an impression when touching it, and if the fruit leather can be carefully separated from the plastic wrap without easily ripping, than it is done baking. Let cool completely before removing the Watermelon Fruit Leather from the baking sheet.

Carefully pull the plastic wrap/fruit leather off the baking sheet and flip it onto a piece of parchment paper – fruit leather down. Remove the plastic wrap from the Watermelon Fruit Leather, cut off any excess fruit leather with a pizza cutter, and the excess parchment paper along the length side with clean kitchen scissors.

Cut the fruit leathers/parchment paper into long strips, about an inch wide, and then roll them up and store in an airtight container, for 3 to 5 at room temperature or up to a week in the fridge.

Notes

It's best to use a plastic wrap that is microwavable and can tolerate low levels of heat so that it doesn't melt in the oven and mess up your yummy Watermelon Fruit Leather. Also, make sure the plastic wrap has no ripples when placed on the baking sheet so that the Watermelon Fruit Leather won’t have any weird lines or ripples once its baked.

If you are baking more than one pan at a time make sure to rotate from top to bottom every hour.

Other recipes by Domestically Blissful:

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I definitely agree! I was having a ton of childhood flash backs while making & eating these Watermelon Fruit Leathers! Oh and if you love watermelon I hope you get a chance to check out the secondary watermelon recipe coming this Thursday!

Hi Guistina! This is such a brilliant idea to use up all that watermelon. We love watermelon, but its so hard to eat it all before it goes bad (not to mention refrigerating it all!). I will definitely have to try this, my 6-year-old would love it. Have pinned and will be featuring on my blog’s FB page (with proper link back, of course).

Would cheesecloth hasten the painful drip process? I am so excited to try his like TOMORROW! I was long told I would need a food dehydrator, but I’m pumped! Whole Foods tomorrow! Can you dehydrate banana chips this way? You may just have altered my family’s snacking and lunch routines with pure yum!
Thanks Mucho!
Quattromom

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Hello! My name is Giustina and I'm a 20 something who is married to my best friend and the love of my life. I think everything tastes better when made with love and a splash of lemon. Although love, life, and marriage is never easy I believe that it is always an adventure worth traveling!

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